1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the field of cognitive sensor systems for robotics, surveillance, and machine and device interactivity with humans and other machines and devices.
More specifically, the invention, characterized as The Agent for Consciousness and Intent (The Agent), provides cognitive sensor systems with the means for consciousness, including awareness of self and surroundings, and conscious decision making Hyper Aware Logic embodies The Agent.
2. Description of the Related Art
The invention is based upon decades, even centuries, of thoughts and research into the seat of consciousness within animal brains (references 1-14). As asserted by Koch and Crick (reference 2): consciousness and the sense of self are as well developed in lower life forms as they are in humans; consciousness is not to be confused with intelligence. Intelligence is the domain of the unconscious brain. Intelligent behavior absent consciousness, however, is probably not possible. Today neuroscience (reference 13) is increasingly focused on the neural correlates of consciousness and Pulvermuller's most recent work (reference 5) provides an understanding of how assemblies of neurons from all over the brain relate, for example, sensor outputs to motor responses and form these assemblies adaptively. Based upon clues within the body of this research, the invention was conceived to fill the missing link in artificial intelligence, which up to now has been largely based upon computer science and largely ignored integration with sensors and action. The missing link in the prior art is a first person singular, that is, an agent that is conscious and makes judgments and decisions based upon the options and conclusions provided by computer science. The IBM science paper (reference 6) reports a good example of hardware and software that emulate the unconscious activities of the brain's visual system in recognizing, tracking, and characterizing objects and activities within a scene. Consciousness is not addressed; such a machine will not converse with its owner or make informed decisions on its own. The purpose of the invention is to add The Agent to smart devices and machines to allow them to communicate verbally, to act, and to be aware of the consequences of actual and anticipated actions.
IBM, in particular, has used the largest available supercomputers, made famous by Watson that defeated humans at television (Jeopardy) and chess games. Watson is a good example of an unaware very capable machine, based upon massively parallel computer circuits to execute previously generated instructions. Lacking an Agent of Consciousness, Watson's decision making is rule-based and well suited to chess, a game with a complete set of fixed rules. Allow the rules to change with circumstances that Watson cannot sense and it becomes lost. This becomes exacerbated when changes result from Watson's own actions, of which it is unaware. Humans and animals interact with their environments in real time and are completely aware of their own responses, as well as the effects of their actions because there is a “they” there; each one has a sense of self and makes decisions with immediate feedback from its sensing of actual results as the action unfolds. Each one has an Agent of Consciousness and Intent that senses itself and its environment while its unconscious brain analyzes what is being sensed and prepares menus for the next step; the decision maker is the animal or human conscious self, The Agent.